The forms are a little more simplified, but the biggest change concerns passport photos. A new 'photometrics' system of face recognition is being implemented so now passport photos has to be taken a certain way and the Passport office is being extremely picky on how your photo looks. I didn't know how particular they were until I had my photos rejected and retaken 3 times! Luckily I went to the Passport office in North York which had quite a few places to get your passport photos taken around the block (including inside the building).
Here are some of the new rules I have learned:
- Before you could wear glasses, but now no accessories (including prescription glasses) could be worn that could obscure the face and its features (strangely light tinted perscription glasses and hairpieces are allowed).
- No facial expressions allowed. No smiling and the mouth must be relaxed and closed. Eyes must gaze straight ahead to the camera. - There must be no shadows on or around the face and no shadows in the background.
- There must be no light or dark spots on the face, including flash reflections from oily skin.
For me I have smooth light skin which is slightly oily.
My first photos were done at Costco and was rejected because I had a white streak on my forehead from the reflection off the flash.
I went to the passport photo place in the same building as the passport office and the photographer asked me to go to the restroom and wash my face of the excessive oil. I returned oil-free, but the photographer refused to take my photo because of the light tone of my skin and smoothness of my forehead he still thinks there will be some light spot on my face and didn't want me to pay $18 for the photos and have them rejected again. He suggested I go to the Shopper's Drugmart across the street to get my photos taken there instead. I went there, but unfortunately their equipment was down. I was told by the photographer there that certain European and Asian skintones are problematic with the new photo rules. She said she often does makeup when taking photos to make the photo more acceptible.
I went to the Black's Cameras a couple stores down and had my photo taken and went back to the Passport office. They were again rejected because my face was too pale and there was a deep shadow line below my chin and jawline. Luckily Black's has a guarantee on their passport photos in the event they get rejected. I went back and had a series taken which I reviewed on their computer and chose the one that look the most acceptable. The photos were still not to Passport Canada's standards -- there was still a little shadowing below my chin and jaw which was not acceptable. Also parts of my face were too light in their eyes.
So back to Black's I went. I had someone else take my photo and asked them to play around with the flash. They also offered me a little baby power to apply to my face to help with the shine. Unfortunately they were using a Canon EOS digital SLR camera with a small flash shoe, so nothing much could be done to improve the photo and after quite a few shots I still couldn't find a photo which I thought the Passport office could accept so I got a full refund.
Feeling very frustrated and desperate, I came up with an idea:
Risking my manlihood, I went to the cosmetics section of Shoppers Drugmart and very embarrassingly asked the person there to make my skin a little darker and matte for my passport photo. She applied power all over my face which made me look like I had a bad fake tan.
I returned to the passport photo place in the same building as the passport office who refused to photograph me in the first place. He went ahead and took my photo after approving of my new matte tan look. Because he had much better photgraphic equipment there was absolutely no shadows at all and my skin tone is even with no pale spots or reflections (though the color was more Oompa-Loompa-ish). So 3 minutes later I had a set of acceptable photos and went upstairs to submit everything to the passport office. No rejections this time!!!
It was an ordeal for me, which I want to warn anyone else about especially for those who are doing it by mail and/or have certain skin complexions that may be problematic.
There's a good article in the Globe and Mail regarding the new standard.
Good luck on your renewals and have a happy New Year!
-Alan.
